Intercultural Communication

(noun)

Intercultural communication is a form of global communication. It is used to describe the wide range of communication problems that naturally appear within an organization made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Intercultural communication is sometimes used synonymously with cross-cultural communication. In this sense it seeks to understand how people from different countries and cultures act, communicate, and perceive the world around them.

Related Terms

Examples of Intercultural Communication in the following topics:

  • Culture Bias

    • How we communicated with one another in spite of and in support of our diverse backgrounds is at the heart of intercultural communication.
    • Unfortunately, more often than not our cultural backgrounds serve as reminders of the ways in which we differ from one another and that our bias can serve as barriers to communication.

  • Movement and Gesture

    • The movement of the body conveys many specific meanings to an audience but can be misinterpreted in an intercultural setting.
    • You can use your body to communicate positively with the audience.
    • A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages such as the open gesture of Desmond Tutu .
    • This form of nonverbal communication is used to emphasize the message.

  • Cultural Differences in Approaching Criticism

    • Different cultural groups have different ways of communicating both verbally and non-verbally.
    • In the United States, students believe that it is up to the professor to communicate the material to the students.
    • However, in an intercultural situation involving collectivist cultures, the speaker should not only be concerned with maintaining his or her own face, but also that of the listeners.
    • Additionally, in many African American and Latin American communities, it is considered respectful for a child not to look directly at an adult who is speaking to them.
    • The attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the attendees shape the communication inside and outside the conference.

  • Speaker

    • The speaker is one of the key elements of the basic speech communication model.
    • The communication cycle offers a model for communication.
    • For the purposes of speech communication, the speaker is you!
    • The sender is the initiator of communication.
    • When you are able to successfully communicate your message, that is, when the audience can decode your message, then you have become a successful communicator.

  • Gender

    • When addressing an audience composed primarily of women versus one composed mostly of men, a political candidate may alter her communicative style to be more or less direct or responsive while still communicating the same information.
    • For those socialized in a feminine community, the purpose of communication is to create and foster relational connections with other people (Johnson, 2000; Wood, 2005).
    • On the other hand, the goal for typically masculine communication is to establish individuality.
    • Differences in gender communication styles can sometimes lead to less effective communication.
    • Distinguish between communicating in a feminine style with communicating in a masculine style

  • Message

    • The message is the most important and instrinsic element of all speech communication models.
    • No matter which model of communication you study, every model includes the most important element of all: the message.
    • You can't have communication without a message.
    • The word "message" actually comes from the Latin mittere, "to send. " The message is fundamental to communication.
    • With regard to public speaking and speech communication, your speech is your message.

  • Culture

    • Cultural differences between listeners and speakers can create barriers to effective communication.
    • —and sometimes the specifics of those cultures seem to be hard-wired into our thinking and the ways in which we communicate.
    • Effective communicators understand that they grow up with cultural biases for and against certain modes of communication.
    • By meeting the speaker on his or her own grounds and taking care to focus on the content rather than the style of the communication, we can best assure more effective understanding.
    • Identify ways in which an effective communicator will approach communicating with a person from another culture

  • Channel

    • A simple speech communication model includes a sender (that is, a speaker), a message, a receiver (that is, an audience), and a channel.
    • When speaking to an audience in person, a speaker uses both verbal and non-verbal methods to communicate the message.
    • When the speaker and the audience are in the same room at the same time, the channels of communication are synchronous, in real time.
    • Speakers also use communication channels that are mediated, meaning there is something between the speaker and the receivers.
    • Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) is able to overcome physical and social limitations of other forms of communication, and therefore allow the interaction of people who are not physically sharing the same space.

  • Communicating Statistics

  • Communicating Examples

    • An example is a specific situation, problem, or story intended to help communicate a more general idea.
    • One method of effectively communicating examples is by using an example to clarify and complement a main point of a presentation.